He flew helicopters. Now he's guiding Jets.
And Ben Kotwica thinks doing one has influenced the other.
The New York Jets' new assistant special teams coach got ready for the job by ... piloting AH-64 Apache Longbow attack helicopters as a U.S. Army platoon leader in support of such units as the 82nd Airborne Division and 1st Cavalry Division over hotspots like Baghdad and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
**Ben Kotwica**
Assistant special teams coach,
» Second season w/Jets
» Three-year starter at LB and captain of the winningest team in Army history, leading the Black Knights to a 10-2 record in 1996.
After that, helping coach special teams in the NFL is -- if not easy -- at least not as dangerous.
Part of that is because Kotwica has seen some of the worst elements of war. The other, he believes, is the carry-over from military operations to the workings of the NFL.
"I think there are multiple similarities between being an officer in the military and a coach in the NFL," he says.
Kotwica's background is pure military and pure football -- oftentimes intermixed.
He was accepted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, after a standout high school career in Tinley Park, Ill., where he earned all-state honors as a linebacker.
"My father was in the military, so that was attractive to me," he says. "I like what the military stands for and that's the reason I ended up going to West Point."
Things were about to happen.
Kotwica made the academy's dean's list as a systems engineer major and at the same time was a three-year starter at linebacker for the Black Knights. He helped Army to a 10-2 mark in 1996 -- the best record in school history -- and a berth in the Independence Bowl. This was all under coach Bob Sutton, now the linebackers coach of the Jets and the man who would be Kotwica's eventual link to pro football.
After graduating from West Point, Kotwica began a seven-year Army career that included time as a combat and attack helicopter commander -- eventually becoming a captain -- that sent him to some of the most incendiary places in the world, such as Iraq and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with time in Korea thrown in.
He was involved in missions that included convoy security, escorts for President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and search and destroy missions.
The latter were the real eye-openers.
"I shot and blew things up," says the 34-year-old, who flew more than 1,000 combat hours over Iraq in 2004-05 in Operation Iraqi Freedom II. "Even with the training that you have flying your helicopter, all that can't prepare you for the reality of war. You see a lot of things. You see heroism, bravery, cowardice, fear. Those are the realities."
For his service, Kotwica received the Army Achievement, Army Commendation and Meritorious Service medals, as well as the Bronze Star. It sharpened his appreciation for things.
"I don't take the loss of life easily, whether it's one of ours or others" says Kotwica. "It gives you a better appreciation for life."
Through all this, though, football was always rummaging around in the back of Kotwica's mind. When he processed out of the Army in 2005, he decided to pursue a coaching career in the sport, where, as he saw it, many of the same principles he applied in the military could be used in coaching.
Kotwica accepted an offer from then-Army head coach Bobby Ross to become defensive coordinator at the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School, which prepares students for admission to West Point. His old Army coach, Sutton, was now with the Jets and recommended Kotwica to then-head coach Eric Mangini in 2007, who hired him as quality control defense/special teams coach.
In that job, which entailed voluminous research, the breaking down of film up to five weeks in advance of a game, and producing reports for coaches that ran from 50 to 200 pages, Kotwica saw connections between the military and coaching in the NFL.
"The computer work and the data analysis that go into it, you'd think you were planning a deep attack mission in Baghdad," he says.
There's the multitasking of coaching that is also similar, he says.
"As a former helicopter pilot, in the cockpit, you have to do a lot of things like communicate and navigate and shoot and figure out where you are. In coaching, there are also a lot of things you try to get done in a short amount of time," says Kotwica.
There's also the attention to detail, organization and time management that is common to both careers.
"If you're not organized in coaching, it can overwhelm you," Kotwica says. "As an officer and helicopter pilot, you can't allow yourself to be overwhelmed because the bad guys will get you. You have to make sure that things get taken care of. My Army experience helped greatly in being able to take over some of the roles I have with the Jets."
And then there's the discipline and strict structure involved in both environments.
"There's no question for anybody who's been in the military that it's a pretty disciplined organization," Kotwica says. "I think that caries over to the football side. You have to have order to get things done."
Perhaps most important, though, is the leadership element that is common to both jobs.
"As a coach, you're leading and teaching and coaching," says Kotwica. "I was a company commander when I was in Iraq and you're dealing with a broad spectrum of different people and personalities. In the military, I was in command of about 40 people and they ranged from the age of 18, or kids right out of high school, to senior enlisted men who had been in the Army for 20 years, so you need a good personality balance in order to lead different types of people. That's the same way in the NFL."
The old job and today's job both seem to have come together for Kotwica.
"I love what I am doing right now and there are not many days that I am not grateful," says Kotwica, who has a daughter and son with his wife Christina. "As an officer that served in the military, it's kind of neat to be one of the guys that allowed other people to do what they do here in America, and now I am that guy thanking our soldiers for what they do. Because without the men and women serving on the lines in Iraq and Afghanistan, we wouldn't be able to do this."
